Flora: Australia's Most Curious Plants

Flora: Australia's Most Curious Plants' showing a variety of colourful flowers on a light yellow background

When it comes to flora, Australia is a land of diversity. From rainforests to deserts, mountains to the seashore, 90 per cent of our plant life is unique to this ancient land. Treasures like our wattles, eucalypts, grass trees and banksias are part of our heritage and identity - and they still flourish here today, on the oldest landmass on Earth.

Flora celebrates and highlights these diverse and curious plants, looking into the history, quirks and uses of our native plants, and how vital they are for our unique ecosystems. Tania McCartney brings her trademark skill and style in both writing and illustration, using her substantial experience in children’s literature to examine Australia’s botanical riches to pick out engaging, informative and surprising facts to share with young readers.

The book includes spreads on the Gondwana Garden, Deadly Flora, Bush Food, Flora Ancestry and more. Meet the Tasmanian mountain ash, which is both the world’s tallest flowering plant and the tallest hardwood tree, growing more than a metre each year ... for up to 400 years! Share in a park ranger’s discovery of a living Jurassic fossil deep in a secret sandstone canyon. Learn how to avoid the most painful plant on earth, the gympie gympie, whose fine little hairs inject a fiery venom that feels like acid and electrocution all at once!

The author introduces readers to hard science too, including information on plant classification, countless cool scientific facts and binomial names and scientific terms, with a handy glossary aimed at children at the back of the book.

Flora…will open your eyes to the vast wonders of our Australian plants, the deadly and the beautiful, and sometimes both at once.

RiotACT

In the collection

Percy Clarke, Grass tree (Xanthorrhoea), 1886, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-133176902

Watercolour painting of red and green flowering plant Anigozanthos manglesii D.Don on a brown background

Ellis Rowan, Anigozanthos manglesii D.Don, family Haemodoraceae, Western Australia, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138818719

Watercolour painting of round yellow flowers on grey stems

Ellis Rowan, Pycnosorus globosus F.L.Bauer ex Benth., family Asteraceae, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138806417

Drawing of a yellow banksia with green leaves, also showing cross sections

Ferdinand Bauer & British Museum (Natural History) & Nokomis Publications, Banksia speciosa showy banksia, 1995, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136232738

Watercolour painting of a red flower with green leaves and stem on a brown background

Marrianne Collinson Campbell, Sturts Desert Pea [Swainsona formosa], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138671138

Adam Forster, Telopea speciosissima, 1916 Oct, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135505809

Watercolour painting of white flowers on a river red gum tree on a grey background

Ellis Rowan, River red gum, Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138792767

Watercolour painting of yellow wattle flowers amongst green leaves with Australian bushland in the background

Ellis Rowan, Acacia pycnantha Benth., family Fabaceae, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138784565

Awards

Notable: CBCA Book of the Year Awards Eve Pownall 2025
Shortlisted: ABIA Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year 2025
Longlisted: Australian Book Design Awards, Best Designed Children’s Non-fiction Book 2025

Reviews

Maureen Mann, CBCA Reading Time

This is an amazingly detailed book which will keep all readers entertained for a long time. Read more at: Flora: Australia's Most Curious Plants - CBCA Reading Time

Shaye Wardrop, Kids Book Review

Calling all junior botanists, plant enthusiasts and flower fans! This is the book you've been craving. Award winning author and illustrator Tania McCartney brings us an in-depth exploration of Australia's most interesting plants in this fantastic non-fiction book. Read more at: Review: Flora: Australia's Most Curious Plant - Kids Book Review

Sue Warren, Just So Stories

With the meticulous attention to detail we know to expect from this extraordinary creator, this is just a sublime page-turner stuffed full of the kind of fascinating facts that both children and adults will find irresistible. Read more at: Flora: Australia's Most Curious Plants – Tania McCartney - Just So Stories

StoryLinks

This companion volume to Fauna: Australian's Most Curious Animals is a treasure trove of information stunningly illustrated in precise detail and glorious colour. Read more at: Flora: Australia's Most Curious Plants – Story Links

Teachers' notes

Teachers' notes: Flora: Australia's Most Curious Plants (PDF, 323.08KB)

Photo of a smiling blonde woman in a blue denim jacket with her arms crossed and leaning against a brown wall

About the author

Tania McCartney is an author, illustrator and editor with over 30 years of experience in publishing.

She has many titles to her name, including Fauna: Australia’s Most Curious Creatures, I Heart the World, Mamie, Merry Everything and Australia: An Illustrated Map.

Tania is a passionate advocate for increasing children’s literacy and is the founder of Kids Book Review and was an ambassador for the National Year of Reading 2012.

Tania has received many awards and commendations for individual publications, but also for her broader contribution to the sector, including the Laurie Copping Award for Distinguished Service to Children’s Literature (CBCA ACT) in 2017.